Aurora Feint has announced the expansion to the Android platform with help from several of their game developing partners. Bigger developers on board for the launch to Android include Digital Chocolate, Glu Mobile, Hudson, and Astraware – with a few independents as well such as Pik Pok, ustwo, Distinct Dev and RocketCat Games.

The port over to Android will include the same features that the iPhone has – mobile payment options, an SDK for developers, and a game discovery store.

Niccolo de Masi, CEO of Glu Mobile, expressed his thoughts on the potential Android has for gaming.

“Android is an evolving gaming platform that will greatly benefit from OpenFeint’s industry leading online gaming and community technologies. OpenFeint is leading the charge for game developers on Android, helping simplify and improve the game discovery and purchase process for players on the platform.”

The quick expansion into the Android market was aided by a strategic investment by Chinese online gaming company, The9. Becoming cross-platform is a big step in the success of OpenFeint, which has every intention of staying free and open source to gamers and developers alike.

There are more than 160,000 Android devices shipping daily, so the expansion to Android is no small move. The rapidly growing company will only snowball its growth by spreading to other platforms.

Jonathan Goldberg, Analyst for Deutsche Bank Equity Research, believes this is a great move for OpenFeint‘s success.

“This is a big step for OpenFeint and an even bigger step for Android as it becomes a serious mobile gaming platform. OpenFeint ushered in mobile online gaming for iOS devices and we think they’ll lead the revolution on Android.”

Despite the big news that OpenFeint is headed to the Android, the company still wants to ensure that they won’t lose focus on their presence in Apple‘s iOS devices. That are committed to the platform that they started on.

“The explosion in mobile online gaming is a phenomenon that affects all members of the mobile ecosystem – from OS developers and OEMs to game developers and players. Online games are meant to be played with all of your friends – regardless of mobile operating system. We’ve decided to expand to Android with these mobile gaming giants because all smartphone owners deserve high quality, easy to find games.”

The move for OpenFeint to Android is big when it comes to breaking down the walls between mobile devices. Cross-platform is important when it comes to interacting with friends – no matter what device they choose. Steam recently accomplished a similar platform expansion with the release of Steam for Mac – it would be great to see similar relationships form between our beloved HD gaming consoles in the future. Though, don’t count on that.

OpenFeint is growing strong, with over 28 million users and over 2,200 games in the iOS app store. We can expect that number to skyrocket once the move to Android is active later this year.

Are you excited for OpenFeint to enhance the gaming presence on your Android phone?